Two by
Rich Murphy
By definition, the comfort zone pillows
substitute for every other word.
Sedative glasses rest on nose bridges
while a waltz strings the vagus nerve
from brainstem to toes.
Trigger warnings cone off
learning opportunities
so that a narrow slalom harrows
the school bus curriculum.
With experience imprisoned
little impression and thinking
feel about right for the new
graduating class accustomed
to eggshells on floors each morning.
Outside the lounge, no one rushes
to embrace snowflakes falling from the sky.
Black smoke erupts from rubber tires burning,
while live rounds fill the air
with a cold atmosphere that freezes flesh.
Dewey Dismal Diagnosis
Medicines lodged in library throats
without curing the city
generation after generation.
The swallowing and digesting words
even with promising side effects
suffered from a choke hold.
The privileged knew how to read
but couldn’t, and the illiterate
picked through trash barrels.
Rats race outside marble floors.
Industrial mortar and pestle
ground away at the interior
causing ulcers in Chicago,
hemorrhaging in Los Angeles,
and psychosis in New York City.
Should some archaeologist from a dig
spoon out pills once bound
for throats, ears, and clarity,
the sifter and fragment collector
might distinguish among the peace signs:
placebos from the verbs with verve.
Founding Fathers seem to have carried
smallpox in blankets without knowing
and a terminal ideology in language.
Rich Murphy’s “Meme Measure,” a collection of poems will be published by Wipf and Stock in 2022. His poetry has won The Poetry Prize at Press Americana twice Americana (2013) and The Left Behind (2021) and Gival Press Poetry Prize Voyeur (2008). Space Craft by Wipf and Stock also came out 2021. Books Prophet Voice Now, essays by Common Ground Research Network and Practitioner Joy, poetry by Wipf and Stock 2020. He has published nine other collections of poetry.